The present invention relates, in general, to a method of producing a material joint.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
The provision of steel-aluminum hybrid parts has a great potential to reduce weight and improves product properties in particular in the field of aviation and space travel as well as in the field of automotive engineering. Structural parts of steel and aluminum material are normally connected using non-thermal joining processes, such as, e.g., riveting or bolting. The various structural parts are hereby connected by a formfit of the rivet or bolt. The strength of such a connection is however limited because of its point-like force transfer. In addition, the introduction of a rivet or a bolt is accompanied by a material removal that causes a weakening in the area of the coupling site.
Another approach to connect hybrid parts of different materials involves the presence of an adhesive joint. An adhesive joint oftentimes is however inadequate to attain the necessary accuracy of production or service life. Also the magnitude of forces that can be transmitted by an adhesive joint is greatly restricted. Thus, cold joining processes like for example riveting or bonding are unable to attain the required stability.
The application of welding has also been known to connect steel alloys and aluminum alloys by a material joint. Despite the widely varying melting points of both types of alloy, welding has been used to realize the material joint. An example of a welding process includes solder-welding. The component of aluminum alloy is hereby melted and connected to the component of steel by material joint. The steel component is coated so as to cross-link the weld material with the coating. As a result, the aluminum component undergoes a welding process and the steel component undergoes a soldering process. Joints realized by solder-welding result however only in a limited strength.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved method of producing a material joint to obviate prior art shortcomings.